ndij- i. ! knot, dllts r inr.H mo aa a; a j bu . lnm,' mli' wit Mais'., ?1MI' The Planter's Daughter ? or fate's REVENGE x By MRS. ALICE P. CARRISTON Author of "A Waif from the Sea," "Her Brightest Hope," ' "Wayward Winnefred," etc. CHAPTER VI. (Continued.) "Well," she said, falteringly, "for the present it would be best for you not to try to see him: sire him Mm tn fnraat 'you. It Is his only chance of never knowing of the cloud that shadows his life. So, when he no longer recognizes you, I see no reason why you should not approach him as a stranger, If that will satisfy you." "Satisfy me!" cried Sylphide, slipping off the sofa and falling upon her knees; "oh, madam, think what you are asking of me! You, too, are a mother, you hare also a son whom you fondly lore you ought to sympathize with me! Then, in mercy's name think! Is there no other hope for me? Could I not take my child and go away, abroad, anywhere where we are not known? I am wealthy in my own right, I will rear my boy aa noDiy as any mother can. Oh, madam, ay that I can do this, and I will bless jruu to my dying day!" "Yea, you could do it," was the cold reply, "there is no law to prevent it. But I warn you that, in whatever part of the world you may be, your baleful secret will find you out again. Then, when your son is grown to man's estate, what will he say to his mother when he learns the truth? Will he not taunt you wrth his ruin? Will not blame from his lips be harder to bear than blame from mine?" "Heaven have mercy upon me yea, yes!" "I think I perceive in him already signs of his father's pride; Lucian will be pitiless upon you when he learns that he has fallen an innocent dupe to jour ambition." Sylphide staggered to her feet and caught at a chair for support while a vivid flush mantled even her brow. "Oh, madam," she murmured, "do not Insult line; I have enough to bear. I love SYLPHIDE CREPT your aon, have always loved him whh a pure, honorable love. We drifted into each other's affections under the guid ance of Fate. . As heaven Is my judge, I swear to you that at the time I mar ried Lucian I was as ignorant of the tain upon me as be was!" "Ah! But you learned the truth with in an hour after you left the altar. Even then you should have been fair and noble enough to have released him from his vows. The folly of your guilty procras tination has come home to yon In the birth of your child." ."Madam," cried the cruelly goaded ere st a re, "who has informed you of all thUr "I tell you I know not," replied Mrs. Courtlandt with ever-increasing irrita tion; "perhaps when you read the writ ing you will recognize your hidden ene my." "Enemy! You are right there. I do not need to see the writing; I know who the fiend Is already!" 'And who Is It?" "That Is my secret!" replied Sylphide, proudly; "the knowledge can never touch you, even remotely, and I propose to be silent until the time comes for me to speak!" The elder womon shuddered at the co , vert menace that these ominous words embodied. i "Well," she said, eager to change this train of thought, "what do you propose to do in regard to your child ?" "What can I do? I am helpless in the matter. I must give him to you!" The words were pronounced with a cold, desperate calmness that was appall ing. . "Bravely spoken!" exclaimed Mrs. I ikKfi Mm&mm 1 Courtlandt with a tinge of genuine enthu siasm and relief; "I am aware that it is a terrible sacrifice I ask of you, but at the same time you cannot but consider the favor I " "Enough!" Interposed Sylphide imperi ously; "the important point now is that'I be convinced that you will take my place In regard to my darling. Grant me until to-morrow to take my leave of him." "So be it; I consent" "I will send him to you by Diana, whom I wish ever to remain with him." "There I must Interpose an objection. I have never liked Diana; besides, I have a competent nurse engaged." Sylphide turned away and bit her lip until the blood started. "Very well," she said after a moment, with suppressed force; "have your own way. I will send my child to you to morrow. Now leave me, madam. I can not support your presence another in stant." Mrs. Courtlandt bowed and withdrew, silently congratulating herself that the most trying episode in her hitherto un ruffled life was over. The Instant the door was closed, Sylphide flung herself, face downwards, upon the floor in a very agony of despair. "What have I done? What have I donef' she wailed; "I have given my child away, sold myself and all for a wrong which is not of my own commit ting! Oh, father, why did you not tell ma? Why have you left me to learn all from the lips of the man who hates me? Oh, blessed mother, I who suffer as you must have! I have closed my ears to the tongue of evil gossip, but their portals have been forced open, and were I stone deaf I must have listened to this cal umny 1" The sudden opening of the door arous ed her to a realisation of the fact that she was no longer alone in her misery, A STEP NEARER. She did not rise, but she turned her head and saw her husband standing there In the noonday sunlight with folded arms, mute and severe as a supreme judge. She dragged herself a little way towards him and sank at his feet. "Lucian," she breathed, "Lucian! speak to me! Have you seen your moth err "I hsve just left her." "Then you know all?" "Yes, I know all." She shrank away from him and hid her face, fearing to look upon him. At last, when the dead silence remained unbrok en, she raised her head and stole a fear ful glance at him. He stood just sb he had paused when he had entered, like one petrified, looking down upon her In Infi nite sorrow and perplexity, but without a shadow of anger in his look. Taking a little heart, she crept a step nearer him and raising horself, she laid her cheek upon his pendent hand. He started at the soft contact, but did not shrink; only the touch brought with it a sense of the reality. "Sylphide Sylphide!" be exclaimed, "is this thing true?" "Yes." "now long have you known that this awful doubt hung over your birth?" he asked. "Since the night we were married." "And who informed you then?" "My cousin, Oscar Gouramont, the man who has sought to defraud me of my fortune." It was too late for prevarication; there fore she spoke frankly, daring the conse quences. "Sylphide, you deceived msl" "I know, and in my misery, I can only ask your forgivenesc" "You have It." His acquiescence was too ready to satisfy her; it seemed like callous indif ference; but she had no time to think of this new phase of her trouble.. "Lucian!" she cried, "what do you think of your mother's proposition con cerning our child?" "I think it Is a wise one. At least he had better be with her until the truth is proven." "Then you mean to investigate the matter?" she gasped, fearfully. "Certainly in the interest of my child. if not in my own." "Will it affect affect our our union?" "It will cancel it." She uttered no sound, but nerves and muscles seemed to refuse their office, and she sank into complete unconsciousness at his feet! CHAPTER VII. The last sad parting was over, and the poor young mother lay, more dead than alive, upon her bed at the hotel. Lucian had gone to take little Leon to his moth er, and only the faithful Diana was left As the hours sped on and night drew near, the comatose state into which Syl phide had fallen, when they drsgged her child from her arms by main force, had deepened rather than lessened, and the mulatto woman became more end more anxious in her lonely vigil. At last, when the twilight actually set in, ahe became so apprehensive for the safety of her mistress that she rang the bell and ordered the nearest physician summoned. He came at once an elder ly man, with an air of Important nnd respect about him. Diana waited with bated breath while he raised the eyelids of his patient, and made a thorough ex amination. Turning to the woman at last, he said: "This lady has undergone some violent mental shock. Can you give me any of the facts of the ease?" he asked. "No, sir; I am not at liberty to speak. Indeed, I do not know the facta tnyeelf. All that I can say is that she has been separated from her child." "Ah! Well, my good woman, if you are the lady's attendant, I must warn you that she is in a most critical condi tion. This syncope may last for hours, even for days, and it is of the utmost im portance that ahe be kept extremely quiet For the Immediate present there is no danger of disturbing her; therefore, I should advise that she be removed at once to some piece where she can be made comfortable, to some place where, when she revives, she will not recognise her surroundings." And with these words he took his hat and departed, leaving Diana alone, in a state of dread and anxiety. What could she do by herself and unassisted? Where should she, a complete stranger in a great city, take her mistress? There was nothing to be done but to pstiently await the return of Lucian Courtlandt, if. Indeed, he came at all that night He returned, however, about ten o'clock, and five minutes later he was in possession of the doctor's commands. He aald nothing, though the expression of his hsggsrd face spoke volumes of . the Inward agony he suffered. Leaving Di ana in charge of the still unconscious sufferer, in less than an hour he return-' ed with the Information that a carriage was in waiting, and a place prepared for the reception of his wife. Diana raised Sylphide as though she had been a mere child, wrapped her in a rich fur-lined cloak, and placed her in her husband's arms. He carried her down to the waiting carriage, and In half an hour a new scene surrounded them. Spa cious and elegant rooms had been se cured in a quiet neighborhood, and had she been In her own home, Sylphide Courtlandt could not have been made more comfortable. As she watched that night by the couch of her unconscious mistress, Diana experienced a certain re lief at the thought that all had been (lone that could. In the gray of the following morning Lucian Courtlandt entered the silent Chamber and paused beside the bed whereon lsy that beautiful form with its blank white face. He was haggard and pallid, almost beyond recognition, and Diana sst there, watching him, won dering in silence what awful secret could be pending between them. At last the painful silence was broken. It was Lu cian Courtlandt who spoke. "Diana," be said, in a low, harsh tone, "I am obliged to start for the South this morning. I am going to Louisiana, but I shall return at the earliest possi ble moment If, in the meantime," he heaitated, and for the first time averted his fixed gate from that marble-like face, "if, in the meantime, any change for the worse should occur In Mrs. Courtlandt, you will at once telegraph me; here is an address which will always reach me." lie handed the watcher a slip of paper, and with a long, last, lingering glance at Sylphide, which Diana dared not Inter rupt, he quitted the room as silently as he had entered it. After this, long days and nights of anxious watching elapsed; and so the first week passed. The genial May weather had come, and at last, one balmy even ing, ten days to the hour since she had entered that unknown land, Sylphide re turned to herself, revived, sat up " and looked about her. . "Lucian has not returned!" Her first words were breathed as gent ly as the scphyr that stirred the -muslin curtains at the half-open window "No, missy, not yet," replied Diana. Sylphide smiled wanly, and lying back among her pillows, she murmured: "Wake me as soon as he comes; he will have news for me." And she lapsed into gentle, healthful slumber, the first that she had known for many a long day; and Diana slept also In her-chair, a thankful prayer upon her lips and gratitude in her heart, little guessing that had her beautiful mistress passed away in the merciful unconscious ness to join her parents, she would have more reason for thanks. (To be contlnned-t raper car wheels, made by pressure from rye straw paper, are usually In condition for a second set of steel tires after the first set is worn out by a run of three hundred thousand miles. Radium constantly generates heat, and Wieii has now shown that t may constantly generate electricity. It gives off both positive and negative electrons, and the former several hun dred times as large as the latter may be held back by a sieve of glass or any other of a variety of substances. Suggestive at least are the conclu sions of Hon. R. J. Strutt, of Bath, England. Helium which Sir William Ramsay has found to be slowly given off by radium exists in the gases of the city's largest hot mineral spring, and at a test of the deposits in the spring has revealed a small propor tion of radium. It is believed that these substances are brought up from a large deposit of radium deep in the earth. All admirers as well as cultivators of carnations are much concerned about a new diseaso that the Depart ment of Agriculture has recently de tected affecting these plants in the Disuict of Columbia aud Feuulva nla. The disease is manifested by the' appearance of ringed spots on the leaves and stems. The spots are shown by the microscope filled with bacteria, which are different from the micro-organisms causing previously known diseases in carnations. A care ful study of the new disease is under way. The German government is devel oping a plan to have its customs offi cials instructed in chemistry, physics and mechanical technology. At the most Important custom houses in every province of the empire there is to be established a laboratory and a library of technical books for the use of the customs officials. The officers of high rank are to instruct the minor officials, and will themselves be train ed In a great laboratory which it is proposed to erect in Berlin in connec tion with the chief customs office. Teachers for this institution will be drawn from the staffs of professors in technical colleges. The Bureau of Forestry finds that sugar culture, the greatest industry of the Hawaiian Islands, depends upon the preservation of the native forests. These are mainly confined to the rainy east and northeast sides of the mountains, and they conserve the wa ter that is needed to irrigate the dry plains where the sugar plantations ex ist The value of these forests con sists not in the trees, which are fre quently low, crooked and sparsely scat tered, but in the impenetrable under growth, composed of vines, ferns and mosses, and so thick that it holds water like a sponge. This undergrowth Is, however, very delicate, and cattle and goats quickly destroy it. It is proposed to save the forests by fenc ing. Condensed into a few words, these are the "Modern Views of Matter," as expounded by Sir Oliver Lodge: "Elec tricity Is a substance, the only kind of substance, and . all matter is merely an accumulation of electric charges, it appears probable that these electric charges are all of exactly the same amount, although some are positive tnd some negative, and that the atoms of the chemical elements are formed by varying numbers and arrangements of these charges, or electrons. There are about seven hundred electrons, 350 positive and 350 negative, in the hydrogen atom, which has been so long regarded as the final and indi visible unit of matter; there must be about sixteen times as many in an oxygen atom; and about 255 times as many, say 100,000, in a radium atom, the heaviest known. HERE'S A HOMILY ON HUNTING, Called Forth by a Dead Toon Btsaf at the Market. "Far be it from me," remarked the Coarse, Brutal Man, "to attempt to bring the blush of self-reproach to the bronzed cheek of our mighty NImrods, high and low, particularly at this sea son of the year; but, walking down the street a couple of mornings ago I saw a dead young stag hanging head downward In front of a market store, and it didn't look to me liko as if that young stag belonged there at all, with all of the life gone out of him, and his nice, honest, on-the-level brown eyes closed for good and all, and him triced up there in front of a butcher's shack. I stood off and looked at the clean young chap for a long while, and the longer I looked him over the more it puzzled me to understand how any civilized man could have it in his heart to kill a fellow like that I wouldn't do It, boy, for a five thousand dollar note, and I need the money at that, and I'm no more of a slow-music-on-the-E-strlng, out-ln-the-snow, sentimen tal Clarissa Harlowe than my neigh bors, either. I couldn't help but think, at I stood leaning against an awning pole, feeling sort o' sorry and gulpy about that young stag, that no man with the right kind of gravies of kind liness in his system would do a thing like that, either In the name of 'sport' or commerce. The man who can let an unsuspecting deer, or elk, or, b'gee, even a bull moose any wood roving, inoffensive horned beast come 'down the wind' on him, with nary a care in life, and looking with Interested curi osity around him any man that can stuff a bullet into a gun and poke that bullet into the heart of such an ani mal, that's minding his own business,, and only asking for a chance to roam unmolested and free under God's blue sky, is suffering from a kind of ossifi cation of the heart and gizzard that I wouldn't have all me for a hull lot of minted money. "There isn't anything much more square or honest or trustful in this world than the look that a deer gives you out of his two eyes, and that's a fact. He isn't looking for the worst of it, unless he's been hunted before. To his view you're Just something alive that's moving around under the blue dome of heaven same as he Is, and his clean nostrils crinkle as he sniffs curi ously and probably wonders why you haven't got four legs, Just like he has. He Isn't trying to butt into nnd inter fere with civilization. He's sticking to the environment In which he found himself when he came into the world. He Isn't bothering anybody. And to plug a chap like that, so honest and four-square to all the winds as he Is, and cut a gash in his neck when he falls in his, tracks, seems to me to be about as low-down and ornery a piece of work as a white man could do. I've had a hull lot of preening chumps take me into their libraries or smoking rooms and, pointing to antlers stuck up above the lintels of their doors, perkily, and with a foolish sort of vanity, say to me, 'I killed that fellow myself,' but I've never had a man say a thing like that to me that I didn't feel like replying, 'Yes, you abject ass, and if you got your deserts you'd have about a thousand years in purgatory for it' "Washington Post CLIMATE IN THE PHILIPPINES. Health on the Islands Depends Upon the BcsUent. Secretary Taft has suggested that the newspapers can "help the Ameri can government in the Philippines by denying the lies circulated about the terrible climate there." In this irood work we gladly offer our co-operation. The climate of the PhlllDDlnes is not at all terrible. Many peoDle live there all the year round. As a climate the Philippine article has much to recom mend it The resident or visitor has no uneasiness regarding his raiment. He does not go to business in a linen "duster" and curse himself on his way home for not having carried an ulster. In its reliability the Philippine cli mate is endlessly the superior of our American brand. The absence of snow and frost Is not necessarily a proof of either uncomfortable or unwholesome conditions. On the contrary, from tlmo immemorial the great majority of world dwellers have been resident in either tropical or subtropical regions, and many have lived to a ripe old age. Health in the Philippines, in Cuba, in Porto Rico and in all other similar regions, barring those having vast areas of low-lying and mlsasmatic marsh lands, depends primarily upon the resident, upon his ability and read iness to adjust himself and his habits to his environment The same law holds in New York city with equal force. In no place on earth may na ture's laws be violated or Ignored with Impunity. Due obedience to those laws In the Philippines or elsewhere, will Insure a corresponding degree of health, comfort and longevity. Those to whom hot weather brings real phy sical suffering, and there are such, will do well to avoid the tropics or the edge of them. But there are many who find cold weather a cause of suffering and who find real delight in a mean tem perature of 85 degrees. The question of heat and cold Is largely a matter of individual preference; So far as salubrity. Is concerned. Secretary Taft Is entirely right and Justified in decrying any attempt to mHlIgn the climate of our Philippine possessions. Those who have the de sire to participate In the economic development of the islands may go there entirely fearless of any climate terrors, providing they will carry with them a modicum of common sense. New York Sun. Ho Didn't Know How. "Charles, dear," said young Mrs. Torkins, "I have done you a great in justice." "In what way?" "I suspected you without renson. I asked several of your friends thnt you go out with of evenings whether you knew how to play poker and every one of them thought a minute and said you didn't" Washington Star. Civilization is making such rapid strides that some day we will hear of a missionary getting cooked in a chafing dish. If a man wears three collars a week some people look upon him as stuck up.